For the Insteon reliability naysayers

[RandyKnight]

As some of you know, I recenlty installed over 100 Insteon devices in my new house. I have a detached RV Garage/Shop that sits about 60' back from the back of the house. The power gets to it through a junction box near the main panel and there is a subpanel in teh shop.

Anyway, I went ahead and put the lighting out there on Insteon figuring if I had to I'd put a separate PLC out there with an XSP, cheap PC or whatever to control it.

Anyway, I got sick of walking out there to turn the outside lights on/off so on a whim I decided to try to link some buttons on a keypad inside the house to the lights on the shop.

Works like a champ!

 

[openboxtt]

Glad to hear things are working out RK. That first hand experience is good to add to the mix.

I've been keeping up with your blog looking out for the new shots.

 

[Digger]

With over 100 switches acting as repeaters I would hope you could link. In smaller installations such as mine (about 14 currently) I have some switches as close as 6 feet on the same circuit that wont link.

Every install is different and every location has different sources of noise etc.

 

[Herdfan]

I have never questioned that kind of reliability with Insteon. My links, except when a device loses them, have always worked great.

But please report back in 6 months and let us know how many, if any, devices have failed. I hope for your sake it is none.

My personal experience tells me zero is not a valid answer.

 

[ChrisWalker]

Hi Randy,

Just curious: how many of those devices are wireless INSTEON devices?

Chris

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Just curious: how many of those devices are wireless INSTEON devices?

You're joking right Chris?

 

[Event5]

 

[ChrisWalker]

I was being serious, wondering about the required plug-in wireless adapters in particular. But yeah, reading the post again it does seem like I was being funny.

Chris

 

[Digger]

Insteon Enabled Products + Wireless = Oximoron??

 

[kimvi]

Doesn't Insteon operate on wired & wireless signals?

 

[TCassio]

I have 7 Icons dimmers, 1 Icon Relay and 6 Insteon Lamplincs, and 2 rflincs, and I have 100% reliability. I've had the Lamplincs since the very early days of Insteon and the Icons since they first came out and I can say that I have not lost 1 peice of equipment to failure. I should note that I very rarely use the switches locally, all my lights are controlled by Motion Sensors and Door Contacts.

 

[johnnynine]

Randy, that's great, it's nice to hear success stories.

Have you done much with interfacing the Insteon devices with your PC, or Elk, etc?

Johnny

 

[Digger]

I have 7 Icons dimmers, 1 Icon Relay and 6 Insteon Lamplincs, and 2 rflincs, and I have 100% reliability.

It looks like you have very few if any CFL bulbs in your home based on the devices you are using. That may mean you have less noise then someone like me and that seems to support the theroy that line noise has large effect on reliability.

 

[Herdfan]

Doesn't Insteon operate on wired & wireless signals?

In Smarthome/Smartlabs mind, yes it does.

In the real world, not really. They like to tout it as a dual PLC/RF protocol, but all the wireless does at this point is to bridge the electrical phases in your house. And in large installations, you might not even need them. Plus, there are other ways to bridge the phases.

 

[opie]

Randy,

Did you have any switches that were DOA?

Scott